#3 TELL-A-VISION

Every once in a while it is necessary to review the past in order to keep up with the concept of, 'history repeating itself.' by ~@~

We had another one of 'those' meetings and it was suggested I play a 'little catch-up' and let everyone know what was/is going on, so here goes...

Grateful Dead

One of the main topics of discussion was my recent attitude changes, so let's start with that.

A few months ago I noticed a Grateful Dead 24/7 channel appear on satellite radio and TV. If one has Sirius Satellite Radio, it is on channel 32 or on DishNetwork, channel 6032.

Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 32 - Grateful Dead - DishNetwork channel 6032
http://www.sirius.com/gratefuldeadradio

For those who do not know, I am a long time Grateful Dead fan and very fond of the band.

(fwiw) I used to help Bobby Petersen unload the truck during the early days and would have a 'cold one' with him and Pigpen from time to time.

I should probably mention Ron's father worked downstairs from me at Stanford, Bobby wrote one of my most favorite 'Dead songs, "Unbroken Chain", and we would hang out in Mexico together, over the years, before his death.

To get to the point, when Jerry passed away, I had a hard time listening to the band because I would get all emotional and tear up.

I was finally able to get over most of this by listening to "Might as Well..., The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead", over and over, but could not get into my tapes, because, for lack of better words, it was still too painful.

The selections presented on the Sirius 24/7 Grateful Dead channel have allowed me to overcome the tears, for the most part, and to retain the best of show memories without emotional breakdown.

Grateful Dead Story - Egypt 1978

by Paul Krassner

In 1978, when I got fired from Hustler, Ken Kesey had invited me to come to Egypt with the Merry Prankster, where the Grateful Dead would be playing at the pyramids. Now, Cairo was buzzing with pedestrians--some barefoot, others wearing platform shoes from the Third World Dumping Ground Bazaar. Automobiles were busy trafficking in anarchy, and taxicab drivers hailed you. Donkeys were pulling carts, bicyclists were avoiding goats, and kids were playing soccer on dirt roads in front of stores selling gold souvenirs.

The same merchants who were suspicious that Israel's Six Day War had been a convenient way of testing U.S. weapons would gladly sell you a bomb casing which had been engraved with hieroglyphics and was now an umbrella stand for your foyer. And the same tourists who swatted away beggars trying to sell simulated scarabs for pennies were quite willing to pay a few bucks for a glass of 7-Up.

Suddenly an incongruous quartet of semi-trailer trucks invaded the rhythm of the city. They were bearing sound equipment lent by the Who to the Dead. Kesey's Day-Glo sneakers were peeking out from under his galabea--a long skirt-like piece of clothing worn by Egyptian men. We each chose our own fabric. Kesey described rock impresario Bill Graham's fabric as "the wallpaper on the upper rooms in the old Fillmore." I had a resistance to buying a galabea but I stood reluctantly on the measuring table.

"Okay," I said, "I'll get one to wear here in Egypt, but I'm definitely not gonna walk down Castro Street with it on."

So there we were, the Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Deadheads, a roving gang of professional weirdos in tie-dye T-shirts, foreigners in our own country yet serving now as unofficial good will ambasadors while, simultaneously, Jimmy Carter was bringing Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin together at Camp David. But we had our own agenda--to make the Sphinx smile.

This trip was a personal vision of the Dead's manager, Richard Loren, who had been to Egypt five times. He had read the Koran thoroughly and had built this musical pilgrimage from the bottom up, just the way the Pyramids themselves were originally constructed, with a foundation held together by a combination of sweat, manure and dedication.

Bob Weir looked up at the Great Pyramid and cried out, "What is it!"

Actually, it was the place for locals to go on a cheap date. The Pyramids were surrounded by moats of discarded bottlecaps. The Dead were scheduled to play on three successive nights at an open-air theater in front of the Pyramids, with the Sphinx looking on. A bootleg tape of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis doing filthy schtick was being used for a preliminary sound check. Later, an American general would complain to stage manager Steve Parish that the decadence of a rock'n'roll band performing here was a sacrilege to five thousand years of history.

"Listen," Parish said, "I lost two brothers in 'Nam, and I don't wanna hear this crap."

The general retreated in the face of those imaginary brothers. But there were a couple of real injured veterans. Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann had fallen off a horse and broken his arm. The horse was unscathed but recommended that Kreutzmann be shot. However, he would still be playing with the band, using one drumstick. Or, as an Arabian fortune cookie might point out, "In the land of the limbless, a one-armed drummer is king."

Basketball star and faithful Deadhead Bill Walton's buttocks had been used as a pincushion by the Portland Traiblazers so that he could continue to perform on court even though the bones of his foot were being shattered with pain he coudn't feel. Having been injected with painkilling drugs to hide the greed rather than heal the injury, he now had to walk around with crutches and one foot in a cast under his extra-long galabea. Maybe Kreutzmann and Walton could team up and enter the half-upside-down sack-race event.

The proceeds of the three concerts would go to the Department of Antiquities and Madame Sadat's Faith and Hope Society, a charity for handicapped children. The official program had an Arabic translation of Grateful Dead biographies. An air of incredible excitement permeated the first night. Never had the Dead been so inspired. Backstage, Jerry Garcia was passing along final instructions to the band.

"Remember," he said, "play in tune."

The music began with Egyptian oudist Hamza el-Din, backed up by a group tapping out ancient rhythms on their 14-inch-diameter tars--pizza-like drums--sooned joined by Mickey Hart, a human butterfly with drumsticks, then Garcia ambled on with a gentle guitar riff, then Kreutzmann, then Phil Lesh, Donna, Keith, and as the Dead meshed with the percussion ensemble, basking in total respect of each other, Bob Weir segued into the opening chords of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away."

"Did you see that?" Kesey said. "The Sphinx's jaw just dropped!"

Sound engineers John Cutler and Dan Healy had attempted to wire the Pyramid for a special echo effect. They set up an FM transmitter on top of the Sphinx, a battery-operated receiver on top of the Great Pyramid, and ran cable around two sides and into the King's Chamber where the acoustics were most favorable. But it didn't work. One theory was that the permission of the gods had not been sought, but Cutler blamed it on tourists who had trampled on the cables.

"I'm a total realist," he said. "I don't believe in any magic or supernatural power ascribed to the Pyramids. I know it's an unpopular attitude around here, but I paid no attention to Pyramid power. Maybe next year."

I had heard that the sound of the universe was D-flat, so that's the note I chanted while sitting in the tub-like sarcophagus at the center of gravity in the Great Pyramid after having ingested liquid LSD that a Prankster had smuggled into Egypt in a plastic Visine bottle. It was only as I breathed in deeply before each extended Om that I was forced to ponder the mystery of those who urinate there.

Outside, I interviewed a camel named R2D2 after the Star Wars character.

Q. What's your theory on who goes in there to urinate?
A. I don't know. And what's more, I don't gve a dung.

Q. Why are you so bitter?
A. Well, if you must know, my testicles still hurt. My master squeezed my scrotum between a pair of bricks.

Q. Jeez, what a terrible accident.
A. Accident, my hump! He did it on purpose so that in my painful response I would skwoosh up enough water to last for twenty days. The lazy bastard!

Q. Wow, I guess it's not easy being a camel.
A. You ain't kidding, pal. These Pyramids may represent the cradle of civilization to you, but to me they are simply reminders of 5,000 years of oppression.

Q. Things haven't improved much for you, huh?
A. We have always been the victims of human chauvinism. Did you know that the first interuterine birth control devices were used in camels? My great-grandmother had pebbles put into her uterus to prevent her from getting pregnant on long journeys.

Q. Well, at least it wasn't permanent sterilization. I mean you're here, right?
A. Yeah, and I have the freedom to piss wherever I want.

Q. Except inside the Pyramid.
A. Listen, you seem like an okay guy, so I'll answer your question. It ain't sacrilegious visitors who take a leak inside the dead king's temple, it's just jaded guides. Hey, you wanna go for a ride now?

Q. Sure, why not?
A. [Singing] I'll never be your beast of burden....

Every morning, my Prankster roommate, George Walker, climbed to the top of the Pyramid. He was in training. It would be his honor to plant a Grateful Dead flag on top of the Great Pyramid. He attached it to a wooden pole at the peak of the pyramid where the stone block that should've been the final piece was missing. It was a thrill to see that flag waving in the breeze. Athough the skull-and-lightning-bolt image was now an international symbol, the Dead remained a purely American band--they had performed at benefits for the San Francisco Diggers, the Black Panther Party, the anti-Vietnam-war movement--and so now the planting of this flag was our Iwo Jima.

* * * * *

There was something especially magical about the third concert on Saturday. I had a strong feeling that I was involved in a lesson. It was as though the secret of the Dead would finally be revealed to me, if only I paid proper attention. Kesey had arranged for a full eclipse of the moon, and Egyptian kids were running through the streets shaking tin cans filled with rocks in order to bring it back.

"It's okay," I assured them, "the Grateful Dead will bring back the moon."

And, sure enough, a rousing rendition of "Ramble On Rose" would accomplish that feat. The moon returned just as the marijuana cookie that Bill Graham gave me started blending in with the other drugs. Graham no longer wore two wristwatches, one for each coast. He now wore one wristwatch with two faces.

There was a slight problem with an amplifier, but a sound engineer said that it was "getting there."

"Getting there ain't good enough," Jerry Garcia replied. "It's gotta fuckin' be there."

His sense of perfectionism was matched by his sense of absurdity.

Between songs, I said to him, "I'm from the Jewish Defense League, and we demand equal time. Never again!" Garcia looked puzzled, so I added, "Well, maybe sometimes?"

He shrugged and said, "Once in a while."

This was a totally outrageous event. The line between incongruity and appropriateness had disappeared along with the moon. The music was so powerful that the only way to go was ecstatic. That night, when the Dead played "Fire On the Mountain," I danced my ass off with all the others on that outdoor stage as if I had no choice.

"You know," Bill Graham confessed, "this is the first time I ever danced in public."

"Me too," I said.

That was the lesson.

The next day, a dozen of us had a farewell party on a felucca--an ancient, roundish boat, a kind of covered wagon that floats along the river. Garcia was carrying his attache case, just in case he suddenly got any new song ideas. There were three guides who came with our rented felucca: an old man whose skin was like corrugated leather; a younger man who was his assistant; and a kid whose job was to light the "hubbly-bubbly"--a giant water pipe which used hot coals to keep the hashish burning.

We were all completely zonked out of our minds in the middle of the Nile. The Egyptians kept us dizzy on hash and we in turn gave them acid. The old man mumbled something--our translator explained, "He says he's seeing strange things"--and he gave me the handle of the rudder to steer, which I managed to do in my stoned stupor. The felluca was now the vehicle of our cultural exchange.

My psyche had become a study in paradox on this trip. While I was still unwinding from my experience at Hustler, I was simultaneously adapting to Egyptian consciousness, where a woman had to be clothed from head to foot with a chador so that only her eyes were showing. The mere sight of her flesh was officially barred because it could create anxiety and excitement in a man. A woman was not permitted to worship with men because her presence would serve as a distraction from Allah.

Although I had never driven a car by choice, if I were a Moslem woman, I wouldn't even be permitted to learn. I would be allowed to walk, but it would have to be several feet behind a man. While the men in my family were enjoying a hearty meal in the dining room, my place would remain--literally--in the kitchen. I would not be allowed to vote, let alone run for office. If I wanted to go shopping, I would not only have to be accompanied by a man who would make the purchase, but I would also have to keep my gaze down because eye contact might upset the shopkeeper.

The women in our group were indpendent, though. I went to a hashish parlor with Mountain Girl and Goldie Rush, and the men there stared in disbelief because this was usually an exclusively male stronghold. Nikki Scully decided to walk around the streets of Cairo wearing chador. She said that the non-verbal message she kept getting from her eye contact with Egyptian women was: We are one! We are one! We are one! Of course, she might well have been projecting her own feminist attitude.

Coincidentally, Ruth Carter Stapleton was visiting Egypt. She had been conducting prayer meetings and inner healing sessions. When Washington Post reporter Rudy Maxa told her I was in Cairo, she asked him to invite me to meet with her.

"After all," she said, "mine is supposed to be a ministry of reconciliation, isn't it?"

But when Maxa wrote in the Post, "Only the inability to determine Krassner's whereabouts saved him from a dose of inner healing at the base of the Pyramids that afternoon," he had no idea that I'd been tripping on acid and chanting inside the Pyramid that same afternoon.

On the return flight from Egypt, many of us ate whatever dope was left, and we had an extremely pleasant trip. I joined the Mile High Club, making love with Mobilia Growlight in the airplane bathroom.

"This," said Mobilia, "is really flying United."

Back in the States, I wrote to Ruth Carter Stapleton, expressing my surprise that she wanted to meet me inasmuch as she had previously asked Larry Flynt to fire me. She phoned in response to my letter.

"I want to apologize," she said. "I had been advised that you were not the correct individual to change the image of Hustler, but I shouldn't have judged you before I met you. I don't usually judge people before I meet them."

"Well, if you were a true Christian," I teased, "you wouldn't judge me even after we had met."

She laughed graciously. Then we talked about the blatant contrast between Hustler and Egypt.

"I went from one extreme to the other," I told her. "It was like getting out of a hot sauna and jumping into the freezing snow."

"How do you mean that?"

"Well, I had gone from showing pink to wearing chador."

More information on Paul Krassner is located at:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Scrapbook/Paul_Krassner.html

"Without love in the dream, It will never come true."
J. Garcia / R. Hunter

Bush's War

This subject is a 'sore spot' with me because it wastes too much time and too many lives.

For over thirty-five (35) years I have worked with the Birthday Party's Nobody for President campaign to encourage people to vote and put None of the Above on voter ballots.

http://www.nobodyforpresident.org/

I can not think of an easier start (None of the Above) on giving the United States back to the people, but activists can not seem to grasp this 'first step' solution and ignore it.

Another simple thing would be to abolish the office of President and hire a ribbon cutter. Let Congress run the country and consider how much money that would save!

Betrayed by Corporate Media

Dahbud covered this with four generalized articles and a punch line:

Supreme Court to democracy: Drop dead

With a single rash, partisan act, the high court has tainted the Bush presidency, besmirched its own reputation and soiled our nation's proudest legacy.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Gary Kamiya
Dec. 14, 2000 | Tuesday, Dec. 12, is a day that will live in American infamy long after the tainted election of George W. Bush has faded from memory. With their rash, divisive decision to dispense with the risky and inconvenient workings of democracy and simply award the presidency to their fellow Republican, five right-wing justices dragged the Supreme Court down to perhaps its most ignominious point since the Dred Scott decision. [Continue Reading At]:

http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/14/bush/index.html

Origin of "The Plan"

by Dahbud Mensch 322

When President Ronald Reagan was shot and laying on the operating table, General Alexander Haig said, "I am in control here.", giving the impression a military coup of the United States had occurred.

Since then, I have been trying to figure out what really happened and here is what I came up with, so far. It started with General Douglas MacArthur and this quote gives the background:

"There is a tradition in American government that the military is subordinate to the civilian leaders. Generals do not make statements about policy without first clearing them with their superiors. But MacArthur, used to ruling in Japan, ignored the chain of command, and began writing letters about what the United States should do in Korea. He sent a letter to the Veterans of Foreign Wars saying that Formosa would be a fine place to launch an aggressive campaign against China. After the Chinese entered the war -- something MacArthur had assured Truman would never happen -- MacArthur wrote to Speaker of the House Joe Martin saying the United States could only win by an all-out war, and this meant bombing the Manchurian bases. So Harry Truman fired him, and evoked a firestorm of criticism from conservatives who believed Truman to be soft on communism. But there is no question that Truman was absolutely correct. Whether his overall policy was right or wrong, the American Constitution commits control of foreign policy to the president and not to the military. As Truman explained, avoidance of World War III while containing aggression was a difficult line to walk, but that was the policy the United States had decided upon. No soldier, not even a five-star general, could unilaterally challenge that policy without disturbing an essential element of democratic government." [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/theplan.html

The Project for the New American Century

January 26, 1998

The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.

The policy of "containment" of Saddam Hussein has been steadily eroding over the past several months. As recent events have demonstrated, we can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections. Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction, therefore, has substantially diminished. Even if full inspections were eventually to resume, which now seems highly unlikely, experience has shown that it is difficult if not impossible to monitor Iraq's chemical and biological weapons production. The lengthy period during which the inspectors will have been unable to enter many Iraqi facilities has made it even less likely that they will be able to uncover all of Saddam's secrets. As a result, in the not-too-distant future we will be unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/pnac26jan1998letter.html

Controlling the News

In-House Memos on Television News Presentations

(June 15) We are going to be running into serious problems with the growing resistance movements in Iraq. GIs are being killed and wounded, convoys ambushed and worst of all scenarios are coming true: The Iraqi oil is being interdicted before it can be shipped out of the country. Casualties cannot be concealed but can be minimized. No clips of dead or injured US personnel... pipeline fires can be shown but voice over should stress that technicians (from Haliburton, of course) are putting out these as quickly as possible. Damage is to be minimal... the nature of the attackers... these are a handful of diehard Saddam supporters... who are being successfully tracked down and neutralized by ever-vigilant and prepared US troops. Show pictures of captured (not dead) Iraqis. Be careful to vet the shots so as not to include any captives that appear to have been beaten...

(June 16) ... Pentagon sources now claim that it will be impossible to bring law and order to Iraq within a year and heavy US military presence must be in place to do this. An order is being prepared to exclude all foreign media, especially British and French, from guerrilla areas. The reason given is that they might be kidnapped but in reality, foreign press might take pictures that are not advisable to be seen in the US. ... the most severe methods of interdiction are currently being indicated including setting up detention camps, curfews, the issuance of ID cards, the closing of mosques, the detention of religious leaders and the sealing of the borders with Syria and Iran...

(June 18) Now it appears that the faked (call them ‘inaccurate') reports about Saddam's purchase of enriched uranium will not go away. The White House hopes that Muslim terrorists will commit some atrocity, preferably in the United States, so as to deflect rising negative attitudes on the part of the electorate... although no one has said it, such an attack(s) would not be surprising. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/newscontrol.html

ReThinking 9/11

You Can Lead A Horse To Water, But You Can Not Make the Horse Drink

by Dahbud Mensch

Nobody cares Republicans spent 55 million of your tax dollars to discover if Monica swallowed and 3 million on the 9/11 Commission.

Nobody cares about Florida, Katherine Harris, the Supreme Court and the 2000 Presidential Election.

Nobody cares about President Bush's military record.

Nobody cares about Bush Family dealings and past association with the Nazi Party.

Nobody cares about IRAN/CONTRA.

Nobody cares about the Bush Administration's inability to find a traitor in the White House, who revealed Wilson's wife, but were able to supply photos of 9/11 hijackers within hours of the mass murder.

Nobody cares about who ordered the Air Force to stand down on 9/11.

Nobody cares about where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are and that Saddam was not involved in 9/11.

Nobody cares about their children dying in an illegal war and an upcoming draft.

Nobody cares about six corporations owning most media and that General Electric, who owns NBC, is one of the largest exporters of WMD on the planet.

Nobody cares about Bush making the planet unsafe and creating a never ending world of terror.

Nobody cares about Israeli and Christian extremists who hate their lives because they believe they are with sin and want to murder the rest of the world in God's name.

Nobody cares about who belongs to Skull & Bones.

Nobody cares about Chemtrails.

Nobody cares about children left behind by a budget that supports war and destroys education.

Nobody cares "The War/Rape/Torture President" disgraced Flag and Country.

Nobody knows who did the Anthrax Attacks.

Nobody knows the truth about a lying Republican Bush Neocon Administration and dimwitted Democrats who took us into an illegal war, murdered tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, and caused gas prices to 'skyrocket'; when Nobody knows the truth about sleazy Texas oilmen.

Nobody wants to subpoena God to find out whose side she is REALLY on. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/rethinking911.html

Underground

Underground culture, or just underground, is a term to describe various alternative cultures which either consider themselves different to the mainstream of society and culture, or are considered so by others. The word underground is used because there is a history of resistance movements under harsh regimes where the term underground was employed to refer to the necessary secrecy of the resisters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_culture

A Maze of Twisty Little Passages

There are 3,333 pages located at FlyingSnail.com and Nobody Cares!

Lake County Blues Allstars - Monday, October 8th, 7-10 PM - Blue Wing Saloon - Upper Lake, Ca.

Summer Of Love Legend Mike Wilhelm and Lake County Blues Allstars featuring Jim Williams and Jon Hopkins were an early crowd favorite on Thursday night. Their set included Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain" and B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby."

Hopkins, the "Barrister of Bass," did a fine rendition of Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man," playing bass and harmonica simultaneously.

A female vocalist named Neon guested on "The Thrill is Gone" and "I'm Tore Down." When not singing she worked the crowd admirably and did great percussion work.

Jim Williams put the great Mike Wilhelm's career in perspective by mentioning that Wilhelm was Jerry Garcia's favorite guitar player. Wilhelm interjected that he was playing though an amp that he bought from Garcia. (On a side note, both Mike Wilhelm and Betty Mae Fikes were pictured in recent issues of Rolling Stone Magazine.)

Wilhelm displayed great virtuosity and chops in his note selection during his solos. The band closed with "Red House' and "Further On Up The Road" to a great ovation by the crowd. Great set!

Written by Thurman Watts, Wednesday, 25 July 2007
http://lakeconews.com/content/view/1301/558/

Lake County Blues Allstars - Saw Shop Gallery Bistro
Thursday, October 11th, 7 pm - Kelseyville, Ca.

Attention Span

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Attention span is the amount of time a person can concentrate on a single activity. The ability to focus one's mental or other efforts on an object is generally considered to be of prime importance to the achievement of goals. People usually have a longer attention span when they are doing something that they enjoy.

In a study of 2,600 children ages 1 to 3 published in 2004, a team of researchers from University of Washington found that early exposure to television may have a negative impact on attention span. It has also been suggested that internet browsing can have a similar effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_span

Turning into digital goldfish

BBC News Friday, 22 February, 2002

If you are spending too much time on the internet and are concerned that it is affecting your concentration, you are not alone.

The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds - the same as a goldfish.

"Our attention span gets affected by the way we do things," says Ted Selker, an expert in the online equivalent of body language at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.

"If we spend our time flitting from one thing to another on the web, we can get into a habit of not concentrating," he told the BBC programme Go Digital.

Quickly bored

With literally millions of websites at our fingertips, the attention span of the average web surfer is measured in seconds.

"When I'm on the internet, my attention span is shorter for each thing because there are so many things to choose from," said one American web browser.

Click here to tell us if you find the web too much of a distraction

"So instead of focusing on one thing and getting the most out of it, I find myself getting bored quickly because I know there are so many more things out there to go to."

It seems that web surfers show a maddening unwillingness to stay put on any one website.

Sticky sites

Ever on the lookout for engaging content, most online viewers spend less than 60 seconds at an average site.

This is a challenge to commercial websites which are desperate to attract readers and keep them there.

"People talk about this in terms of stickiness," explains psychiatrist Pam Briggs, of Nottingham University in the UK.

"If a website has stickiness, it will keep your attention glued to that site rather than let you click on another one as your competitor is just one click away."

Other digital distractions, like e-mail or instant messaging, are also vying for our attention.

"E-mails are very seductive," says Pam Briggs. "You can't leave them alone when your computer beeps to tell you have a new message, even though you are working on quite an important task."

Stay focused

And if all this was not enough, quickie movie breaks are a growing distraction. On Shortspan.com, the shortest film is 12 seconds long, while the longest is three and a half minutes.

Shortspan.com's founder, Beth Hall, has seen the popularity of these shorts skyrocket over the past 10 years.

"Primarily our audience is folks that already knew about Shortspan or are interested in movies and search for the word on the web. We also get lots of folks on their coffee break at work."

If you find you are spending all night on the web, unaware of time melting away, experts have some advice for you.

"Give yourself a question, give yourself a goal, write it down. Follow that goal, know why you're surfing," says Ted Selker.

"Because if you don't know why you are doing it, you are going to be pushed around by the most exciting words in a never ending sea of information."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1834682.stm

Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children

by Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, Frederick J. Zimmerman, PhD, David L. DiGiuseppe, MSc, Carolyn A. McCarty, PhD - PEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 4 April 2004, pp. 708-713

Objective. Cross-sectional research has suggested that television viewing may be associated with decreased attention spans in children. However, longitudinal data of early television exposure and subsequent attentional problems have been lacking. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that early television exposure (at ages 1 and 3) is associated with attentional problems at age 7.

Methods. We used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a representative longitudinal data set. Our main outcome was the hyperactivity subscale of the Behavioral Problems Index determined on all participants at age 7. Children who were ≥1.2 standard deviations above the mean were classified as having attentional problems. Our main predictor was hours of television watched daily at ages 1 and 3 years.

Results. Data were available for 1278 children at age 1 and 1345 children at age 3. Ten percent of children had attentional problems at age 7. In a logistic regression model, hours of television viewed per day at both ages 1 and 3 was associated with attentional problems at age 7 (1.09 [1.03–1.15] and 1.09 [1.02–1.16]), respectively.

Conclusions. Early television exposure is associated with attentional problems at age 7. Efforts to limit television viewing in early childhood may be warranted, and additional research is needed.

Key Words: ADHD • television • attentional problems • prevention

Abbreviations: ADHD, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder • NLSY, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth • BPI, Behavioral Problems Index • SD, standard deviation • CES-D, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/4/708

Short attention span linked to TV

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

The more television infants and toddlers watch, the more likely they are to have trouble paying attention and concentrating during their early school years, a study reports Monday.

Although there has been other research on how many hours of TV very young kids watch, this is the first study on how early viewing might affect attention span.

Young children often are mesmerized by the TV screen, says study leader Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. The possible link between watching TV and attention problems is of great concern because so many infants and toddlers are frequent viewers, he says.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for children younger than 2 and no more than two hours of high-quality programming for older kids. Many children watch much more TV.

Christakis used a government database to see how much TV 1- to 3-year-old children watched, as reported by their mothers, and then related that to their scores on a behavior checklist showing attention problems at age 7. His report on about 1,300 kids is in Pediatrics.

Frequent TV viewers in early childhood were most likely to score in the highest 10% for concentration problems, impulsiveness and restlessness. Scoring within that 10% doesn't mean a child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but many would have it, and the others could face major learning problems, Christakis says.

Every added hour of watching TV increased a child's odds of having attention problems by about 10%. Kids watching about three hours a day were 30% more likely to have attention trouble than those viewing no TV. The researchers accounted for many factors beside television that might predict problems concentrating, but the TV-attention link remained.

In the first few years, human brains undergo "huge and very swift development," says Elizabeth Sowell, a UCLA neuropsychologist. Animal studies show that stimulating environments can change young brains. The rapid-fire stimulation of TV might do the same.

The change isn't necessarily bad, Los Angeles media psychologist Stuart Fischoff says. As media exposure grows, "these kids could be expressing 'the new brain.' They could be an advance guard that suggests we may need new ways of teaching children exposed to a lot of media stimulation."

But some experts are concerned. "This should be a wake-up call that we need to take a closer look at how early media use affects children," says Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "We know hardly anything about it."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-05-tv-bottomstrip_x.htm

Frequent TV watching shortens kids' attention spans

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

Psychologists and media experts are concerned, but not surprised, by a landmark study suggesting that frequent TV watching by infants and toddlers may shorten their attention span by age 7.

The research, in today's Pediatrics, finds that the more television very young kids watch, the more likely they are to have trouble concentrating and to become impulsive and restless.

Human brains change rapidly in early life, says UCLA neuropsychologist Elizabeth Sowell, and animal research shows that stimulation can "rewire" the brain.

Things happen fast on the TV screen, so kids' brains may come to expect this pace, "making it harder to concentrate if there's less stimulation," says study leader Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

Also, TV may replace activities, such as reading, that could help children learn to concentrate, Sowell says.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is genetic, but past studies suggest the environment also plays a key role, Christakis says. How different environments might promote ADHD "has barely been touched by systematic research," writes Vail, Co., educational psychologist Jane Healy in a commentary accompanying the Pediatrics report. But TV exposure in young kids is growing, she says.

Although most studies haven't considered TV watching by very young children, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey last year found that about 2 out of 5 children under age 2 watch television every day, and a quarter of them have TVs in their own rooms, says Vicky Rideout of the foundation.

Also, a soaring number of young kids watch DVDs or videos, some thought to be educational, but others as fast-paced as TV, Rideout says. And more TV shows, such as Teletubbies and Boobah, are geared for children under 3.

Meanwhile, even veteran teachers with superb child-managing skills are reporting "more kids that are off-the-wall. ... It started about 10 years ago," says Susan Ratterree, a 25-year school psychologist supervisor in suburban New Orleans. Awareness of ADHD is increasing teacher reports of attention problems, "but the kids are changing, too," she says.

Educators may need to change their methods to keep the attention of stimulation-saturated children, says Los Angeles media psychologist Stuart Fischoff. "Rather than seeing these kids as pathological, maybe we should see them as adaptive, pointing the way to how our society is evolving. Brains may be changing, and we don't know if it's going to be bad or not."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-04-05-tv-kids-attention-usat_x.htm

Dreamstreets

Dreamstreets
WVUD - Wednesday Mornings
11-11:30 AM Eastern -- 8-8:30 AM Pacific
Listen On-line at: http://www.wvud.org/listen_online.htm with Even Steven

Boptime

Boptime
WVUD - Saturday Mornings
6-10 AM Eastern -- 3-7 AM Pacific
Listen On-line at: http://www.wvud.org/listen_online.htm with Even Steven

Scoop Nisker on Nobody for President, 1980
NobodyForPresident.org - digg

Nobody says, "Eliminate the office of President, hire a ribbon cutter, and let Congress run the Country. It will save billions of wasted tax dollars that could have been used to improve Health and Education for the people."

Country Joe McDonald [home] did the second Nobody for President song at Union Square, San Francisco, 1980 (The FLASH video is located here or Nobody's FLASH video page).

Jim Maxwell & The Sundown Band sing Nobody for President - MP3

http://www.flyingsnail.com/Podcast/NobodyForPresident.mp3

Jim Maxwell - vocal, guitar, Roy Marden - guitar, vocals, Jerry Shebeski - drums, Joe Jedrlinic - bass guitar, Craig Grant - vocals, percussion, David Peel - vocals, percussion, Joanna D'ascoli - vocals, Sherwin Winnick - mix consultant, Recorded at Dreamland Studios, N.Y., Mixed at Sundown Recording, L.I., N.Y., Special Thanks: Andrea Katz, Cover Design: Harry Wasserman, Promotion: Michael Luckman. [More Details Located At]:

http://www.nobodyforpresident.org/nobodysongs.html

Welcome to Tian Gong
Oneness between the Sacred Universe and Humans and Universal Unity

http://tiangong.org/en/ - via Wavy Gravy - http://wavygravy.net/

Page update at Rainbow Puddle, check it out! http://RainbowPuddle.com/

So much for eye witness reporting

Seeing Is Believing ???
If you look at the images from your seat in front of the computer,
Mr. Angry is on the left, and Ms.Calm is on the right.
Get up from your seat, and move back 12 feet. [Tnx Joe]

Autumn Leaves

If Life Has Become Hell in a Bucket, Learn How to Enjoy the Ride

While an apathetic population gorges itself with mood elevators, tranquilizers, and sleeping pills, to numb out a (sic) Neoconed imposed New World Order, we return to our original page intentions: ART and ENTERTAINMENT, with a reminder to "Ignore Alien Orders" and "Question Authority". by ~@~

Thanks to Ralph, we ask that you watch the following video, titled:

PaintJam by Dan Donn

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=3193

Thanks to Fred, we ask that you watch the following video titled:

General Elevator - Episode 1
The series premiere of National Banana's moving medical drama. - Time: 03:58

http://www.nationalbanana.com/

What your sofa says about you

by Susan Redman
October 19, 2007

Take this quiz to find out if your taste in interior design makes you a minimalist or a maven.

Imagine you have the kind of financial good health that will allow you to surround yourself with your favourite decor and objets d'art. Does your decorating taste run to British colonial or global eclectic? Or are you more of a minimalist or retro fan? Whether you are ultimately classed a Style Maven or an Empire Builder, this 10-question quiz will discover what your design tastes and preferences say about you. [Continue Reading At]:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/house--home/what-your-sofa-says-about-you

Hasta la Vista HBO
Building 7
Real Time with Bill Maher Is Not The Sopranos

Subject: Attempt to cancel Politically Incorrect
From: Arianna Huffington
Date: Monday, September 24, 2001
To: undisclosed-recipients

Friends,

As you will see from today's column, we need your help if we are to stop ABC from canceling "Politically Incorrect." A small group of zealots have intentionally distorted comments made by Bill Maher, and succeeded in putting the show's future in jeopardy. If you agree that we can simultaneously rally around the flag and allow dissent and free speech to flourish, please log on to www4.PetitionOnline.com / promaher / petition.html and sign the petition.

Also, if you know anybody in the ABC or Disney hierarchy, please give them a call. This is not just about one show -- it's about avoiding the first step on a really dangerous slippery slope. Thank you so much.

Arianna

Part of many pages covering this subject on FlyingSnail.com:

Snip of FlyingSnail.com, October 8, 2001

One thing Bill does not understand is a lot of people he now regards as "Crazy," were the same people who stood by him, when he was fired by ABC.

Since I am just another Nobody, rather than a celebrity who gets buggered by Ann Coulter, the only power I have is an ability to cancel HBO.

And just in case your Attention Span is sputtering:

Maher’s Final Half Hour, Why PI should go.

By Jonah Goldberg
September 28, 2001 2:30 PM

Bill Maher, host of ABC's Politically Incorrect, is under attack. Sears and Federal Express pulled their sponsorships of the show. Viewers are angry. Several affiliates have dropped him. His show is teetering on the brink of cancellation, all because he said that the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center weren't cowards. Rather, he said, "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly."

Now, I'm torn. On the one hand, Maher is not entirely wrong, though his comments were poorly timed and mean-spirited. The Clinton policy of risk-free symbolic strikes against Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden was hardly gutsy.

On the other hand, Politically Incorrect deserves to be canceled more than any show not currently on the WB. Maher, his producers and fans have long contended that the show makes a valuable contribution by inviting apathetic Americans into the "national conversation." Of course, it's a mystery to me why any American who can't be bothered to pay attention to politics unless Pamela Anderson is discussing it should be welcome in that conversation.

I'm embarrassed to admit I've been on Politically Incorrect a few times but will never again. Still, I think I've identified the two basic problems with the show: the concept and the host.

Politically Incorrect is one of the last icons of the 1990s conflation of celebrity and politics: George magazine, Murphy Brown, "policy summits" at the White House for the likes of Billy Crystal and Richard Dreyfuss, "serious" speeches by Barbra Streisand.

The result of this phenomenon was a profoundly cynical approach to important questions. It said that fame, as opposed to serious work, intelligence or experience, was the best criterion for determining who has a legitimate opinion.

For example, in every issue of George, the editors asked a Hollywood star what they would do if they were president. The first thing Melanie Griffith would do is pass a law saying "no one should make more than $1 billion a year." Such stuff may offer valuable insight into how Melanie Griffith thinks — on the odd chance someone finds value in such things — but in a discussion of public policy, this is as helpful as cricket chirping.

Similarly, the idea behind Politically Incorrect is to get a bunch of pretty people together and have them argue with politicians and other political professionals (journalists, activists, etc.).

Of course, the real aim of the show is to make fun of conservatives while sounding "politically incorrect." As Maher told Playboy in 1997, "Ninety percent of show-business people are nutty liberals." So the liberal seats are filled with lefty comedians, movie stars, and rappers. This leaves the conservative seats to mockable right-wingers. Worse, not only does the audience root for the celebrities, but the host and producers do too.

Which gets us to the second problem with the show. Bill Maher is anything but an impartial host. He sucks up to Hollywood liberals because A) he needs to get them back on the show, B) he usually agrees with them, and C) they tend to be wildly ignorant.

Maher calls himself a libertarian, but the fact is he's a libertine socialist; he favors guilt-free promiscuity and legal drugs, but everything else is eligible for a government takeover. Remember: Libertarians are for as little government as possible, particularly in the economic and regulatory realm. Maher supported Ralph Nader for president and has said he favors a government takeover of the electoral system. To call himself a libertarian is like a Vishnu worshipper calling himself Catholic.

But that's Maher's approach to everything: Getting hung up on what his guests deride as mere "labels" or "details" is just stupid in a world where the opinions of supermodels matter a great deal.

It should be no surprise that columnist Arianna Huffington has come to Maher's aid. Recall that in the last election cycle, the one-time Gingrich conservative rightly ridiculed the notion that Donald Trump was qualified to run for president but in the same breath she became the cheerleader for a Warren Beatty candidacy. By my calculations, that's a full 720-degree spin of hypocrisy.

Anyway, Huffington has written a letter, column, whatever (again, labels, shmabels) asking people to petition ABC not to "censor" Politically Incorrect. Huffington warns that the First Amendment might be the first victim of the terrorist assault if Politically Incorrect is dropped. Never mind that the First Amendment, which deals only with government censorship, has nothing to do with this (sigh, more labels).

The truth is that Politically Incorrect lasted longer than it deserved. And, in the wake of the Sept. 11 murders, Maher's style of cynical mocking, sophomoric sex-talk, and knee-jerk America-bashing was destined to die on the vine no matter what, because it's inappropriate, dated and boring just like the title of the show.

Does he really deserve to be canned because of this specific remark? Probably not, but why get caught up in the details?

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDc2MjM2ZTFkODAyYWE0OGJkNzc2NDliNmIzYjVkZGU=

Snip of THE RAW STORY, October 9, 2007
'9/11 Truthers' flip the bird at Bill Maher

by Jason Rhyne
Published: Tuesday October 9, 2007

Photo: Jan Hoyer

After being broadly denounced as "crazy people" by HBO's sharp-tongued Bill Maher, some members of the so-called 9/11 Truth movement -- a group convinced that US government accounts of the Sept. 11 tragedies do not fully explain the events of that day -- decided to give Maher a taste of his own caustic medicine.

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Bill_Maher_Thinks_911_Truthers_should_0915.html

In a new video making its rounds on the internet, one band of miffed Los Angeles-based "Truthers" borrows the graphics, theme music and trademark bite of Maher's popular "New Rules" segment to push back at the comedian's charges that conspiracy theorists are lunatics. "Crazy people are defined by acting crazy," activist Stewart Howe says in the clip, sitting alongside a Maher-esque video window depicting Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in a straight jacket. "9/11 Truthers," he continues, "are defined by a patriotic quest for the truth."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoJJIYWMZlY

http://www.wearechangela.org/home/news.php

"I love Bill Maher, but he's wrong about 9/11 Truth," Katy Kurtzman, who also appears in the video, told RAW STORY. "We wanted to give it back to him the way he gives it out, which is 'I'm smarter than you and I'm gonna make fun of you about it.'"

"We had no idea it was going to go as viral as it has," she said of the project, which is the subject of more than 35,000 hits to date on YouTube and has received widespread postings on websites skeptical of the official 9/11 story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoJJIYWMZlY

"It's a response to Bill Maher," said Kurtzman, "but it's also a cheerleading thing for 9/11 Truth."

In the Sept. 14 episode of his program, Real Time, Maher had been characteristically barbed:

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/20070914.html

"Crazy people who still think the government brought down the Twin Towers in a controlled explosion," the comedian jabbed, "have to stop pretending that I'm the one who's being naive."

"How big a lunatic do you have to be to watch two giant airliners packed with jet fuel slam into buildings on live TV, igniting a massive inferno that burned for two hours, and then think 'well, if you believe that was the cause," he continued, adding that people should "stop asking me to raise this ridiculous topic on the show and start asking your doctor if Paxil is right for you."

But Bruno Bruhwiler, who edited the green screen video response to those charges, says Maher wasn't being fair to the greater 9/11 Truth movement.

"Sure you have to take some of it with a grain of salt," he said of particularly outlandish conspiracy theories that the majority of the group doesn't stand by, "but in general, a picture emerges."

"It was upsetting because he was dissing the 9/11 Truthers, but he wasn't having any on his show," Bruhwiler continued. "Which is odd, because it's a debate show."

So the Truthers invented their own equal time response opportunity.

"New rule: buildings do not collapse into the path of most resistance at anything close to freefall speed," Kurtzman counters on video, referring to claims by some that only a controlled demolition would allow for such a fast collapse by the Twin Towers. "Go back to kindergarten and play with blocks until you figure that out," she tells Maher, aping the host's finger-wagging delivery.

Kurtzman also raised questions about the collapse of the World Trade Center's building seven, which fell despite not being struck by a plane.

"Two airplanes can't slam into two buildings and knock down three," she says, punctuating the point by flipping Maher off.

Stewart Howe, Kurtzman's co-star in the clip, says in the video that Sept. 11 was part of an orchestrated plan that fulfilled a host of Bush administration goals.

"They wanted to go to war with Afghanistan and Iraq. They got it. They wanted to make billions of dollars for their corporate friends. They got it," Howe says, adding that widely accepted explanation of the events of 9/11 helped increase executive power and convinced Maher himself to "parrot the official story."

"Didn't they manage to accomplish all of this? Absolutely they did," he continues, adding that "it doesn't look like incompetence to me Bill, it looks to me like 'mission accomplished."

"Bill Maher is doing what most of the mainstream media is doing. All they can really do is attack the messenger," Howe told RAW STORY. "If they allow it to become a rational debate, they'll lose every time. It's just not debatable."

Although the video format didn't allow the group to delve into the swirl of 9/11 facts and figures they say supports their case -- they point to an online documentary called "9/11 Mysteries" and a number of websites as representative of their views -- it did give them a chance to stick up for themselves.

http://www.ae911truth.org/

http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/

"We thought, let's just have fun and slam back," said Howe.

And if Bill Maher ever decides to change his mind about what happened?

"In the hopeful event that you rise to the occasion and take the red pill as opposed to more Zoloft," Kurtzman says, "get back to us because we won't hold a grudge."

"That," she says, "would be crazy."

Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/911_Truthers_not_taking_Maher_slams_1009.html

9/11 Coincidences (Part Eighteen)
Thanks to: Ponderosa Pine

NEW RULZ?:
We CANCELLED HBO because Real Time is not The Sopranos.

40th Anniversary - Summer of Love Celebration, Longshoremen's Hall, Saturday, October 27, 2007, 8 PM
I AM GETTING IT, ARE YOU? Festival
Longshoremen's Hall
100 North Point Street, S.F., CA 94133
Between Taylor and Mason
Saturday, October 27, 2007, 8 PM
[READ BELOW HISTORICAL FLASHBACK]

Promoting Early Stage HIV Testing and De-Stigmatizing the Disease AIDS.

$35 festival admission, FREE for the first 100 + adult San Francisco residents pledging to be HIV TESTED, and $25 thereafter for all pledging HIV testing.

To Overcome HIV/AIDS "Hope and Beyond" Supports U.S. CDC position that all between the ages 13 and 64 yrs have the opportunity to be voluntarily HIV Tested.

http://hopeandbeyond.org/ - http://www.myspace.com/summerofloveinternational

Historical Flashback: A Tribute to Dr. Strange

A Trbute to Dr. Strange, October 16, 1965 Poster

In October 1965, a small commune called the Family Dog threw an unusual dance at Longshoreman's Hall, starring a rock band called the Charlatans that had played the previous summer at the Red Dog Saloon, a restored silver rush dance hall in Virginia City, Nev. The second-billed group, which had an even weirder name, Jefferson Airplane, was making its first appearance outside the Marina District nightclub it had opened the month before. The third act on the bill, the Great Society, featured a former model from Palo Alto named Grace Slick.

More than a thousand people turned up for the dance. Hair flowing over their collars, the revelers were dressed cheerfully in colorful discards plucked from thrift stores. Many were on LSD, as were many of the musicians. Virtually everyone who attended "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," as the dance was called, seemed to have the same thought about the gathering: "I didn't know there were this many of us."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/20/MNG2NPUD1C1.DTL&type=printable

The other development that helped form the Haight's early temperament took place at a Western-style dance hall, the Red Dog Saloon, in the ghost town of Virginia City, Nevada. In June 1965, a San Francisco band, the Charlatans, took up residency at the saloon. Their easygoing attitude and meandering performances--as they played sometimes under LSD's influence for an audience also sometimes under LSD's influence--set another model for psychedelic gatherings, one less tense and sardonic than Kesey's.

In San Francisco in October 1965, some Red Dog veterans, now calling themselves the Family Dog, staged an evening of bands and dancing at the Longshoremen's Hall; billed as 'A Tribute to Dr. Strange,' it featured the Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society. The event spontaneously fused the lenient spirit of the Acid Tests with the Red Dog's focus on dancing and proved a pivotal occasion in the psychedelic scene's history. Over the next two years, San Francisco dance ballrooms--primarily the Avalon and the Fillmore--became not merely a central metaphor for Haight-Ashbury's reinvention of community but also a fundamental enactment of it.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15255158/san_francisco_the_start_of_the_revolution

Event: First Rock Dance Concert. Saturday, October 16, 1965.

Short Note: Produced by the Family Dog at the Longshoreman's Hall.

Long Note: The first rock dance concert ever held took place under the sponsorship of the Family Dog at the octagonal meeting hall of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union near Fishermen's Wharf. It was billed as "A Tribute to Dr. Strange," and featured the Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans, the Great Society, and ?the Marbles [who later metamorphized into the Loading Zone]. A light show was operated by Bill Ham.

http://rockpilgrimage.blogspot.com/2005/07/hey-yall-you-know-i-hate-to-call-this.html

Family Dog collective dance and concert, a tribute to Dr. Strange, at Longshoremen's Hall with The Jefferson Airplane and the Charlatans, and the Great Society. Russ "The Moose" Syracuse of KYA was master of ceremonies.

http://www.diggers.org/chrono_notes.htm

Comet brightens to naked-eye brilliance

Posted: Fri, Oct 26, 2007, 8:19 AM ET (1219 GMT)

An obscure comet has surprised astronomers by suddenly brightening to naked-eye visibility this week. Comet 17P/Holmes has been a dim magnitude 17 object, visible only with large telescopes, but since Tuesday the object has brightened by roughly a factor of a million, to about magnitude 3, making it visible to the naked eye in rural and some suburban locations. The comet, located in the direction of the constellation Pegasus, lacks a tail but does have a fuzzy appearance created by coma of gas and dust surrounding it. Comet Holmes is about 365 million km from the Sun and 245 million km from the Earth. Scientists suspect that some sort of outburst of gas and dust caused the comet to brighten, but don't know what triggered it and how long the comet will remain bright.

Source: http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/3954